chances at top colleges

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>i plan on applying to some of these Duke, UNC-Chapel hill (safety school), Georgetown, Brown, Harvard, Cornell, UPenn, Yale, Uchicago, and Johns Hopkins</p>

<p>Highschool Junior, arab male,
Weighted GPA (after 1st semester was 4.75, at the end of junior year it should be 4.83, i plan on having a 4.97 by the end of senior year but colleges probably wont get those grades ) Unweighted GPA 4.0
Class rank top 10 out of 600
4 Ap classes this year(environmental science, calculus ab, calculus bc, and Us government), and plan on taking 3 next year (european history, english 12, and statistics)
Sat- 2200 (780 math, 720 reading, 700 writing)
Have not taken Sat 2's yet but am signed up for the math 2 and us history ones, and plan on taking the latin one</p>

<p>Sports- 4 years of Cross Country (will be captain and number 1 runner next year) 2 years on varsity and 2 on jv
4 years of Indoor track (State championship qualifier this year)
4 years of outdoor track 2 years varsity</p>

<p>Clubs- Founding member of my schools Model UN and first junior representative and next year will be VP, Latin Club North Carolina's Junior Classical League, the National Junior Classical League, the National Junior Classical League Honor Society, Key Club, National Honors Society, i also was a school organizer for relay for life.</p>

<p>Summer- last summer i traveled to Jordan for a month (not sure if this matters at all) and this summer i am doing the secondary school program at Harvard and will get 4 credit hours</p>

<p>Competitive public school in NC, this year it sent 4 students to duke</p>

<p>So do you think i can get in? I'm worried that my Ec's arent good enough but doing sports year round makes it hard to be in many clubs. Also do you think i should take the SAT again or stick with the 2200?</p>

2

<p>i forgot i also, took the amc 12 this year and last year and qualified for the aime both years, this year i had the highest score in my school</p>

3

<p>well considering ur overall score isnt "inflated" (eg 800 writing score), and ur 1600 score is very high, u probably dont need to take the SAT again because its very high. Of course, you can always get a better score if u want one, but for a 1500+ SAT score (out of 1600) i dont think colleges care.</p>

<p>VP of model UN will help u</p>

4

<p>Right now, with your stats (high GPA, above average SAT), you are a "qualified" applicant. By that, I mean the admission officers will not just brush off your application aside. They will read it carefully to really see who you are.</p>

<p>However, at this point, you seem like a very generic applicant to many of the top schools that you are applying to. Your EC's are very average (and they do not convey much passion), so it is likely that adcoms will not be too enthusiastic about your application.</p>

<p>So I'd advice you to do the following to improve your chances:
1) If you have time, take the SAT again and raise the score to 2250+ (2300+ would be ideal). 2200 won't be detrimental to your application, but higher SAT scores can help offset your weakness in EC's a little bit (not by much, but still, you want to increase your chances as much as possible). Also, try to get 800s in your SAT II's.
2) You need to start getting involved in the community. Go outside of the clubs/teams of your school. Join a volunteer organization. You need to demonstrate a lot of leadership and initiative as well.
3) What is your intellectual passion? You have to find one for yourself.
4) Essays, essays, essays. I can't stress that enough. Many seem to overlook the importance of essays. Well, I think essays are the best way to show them the special quality that no one but you posseses. </p>

<p>I'll tell you my predictions, based on the stats that you have at this point:
Duke - match/low reach
UNC-Chapel hill - safety
Georgetown - match
Brown - match/low reach
Harvard - reach
Cornell - low reach
UPenn - low reach/reach
Yale - reach
Uchicago - low reach
Johns Hopkins - low -reach</p>

<p>good luck!</p>

5

<p>So you think browns easier to get into than JHU?
Also, i'm national merit on the psat if that matters at all,
I plan on organizing at least 2 more community service projects for my school do you think those will help? Also, when i apply should i put down that i attended charity walks and fundraisers (i've done a few of those and volunteered for some races) and things like that or does that not matter?</p>

6

<p>actually johns hopkins is a match/low reach as well. I think Brown and JHU are pretty similar in terms of acceptance rates, etc.</p>

<p>National Merit on the PSAT won't help you too much for top universities, because so many applicants will have received it. It won't impress the adcoms at all.</p>

<p>Organizing community service projects are awesome ideas! Make sure you are dedicated, and try to raise lots of money/awareness. Most importantly, have fun! Also, if you are organizing this for a particular volunteer organization or something, maintain a good relationship with the coordinator. You might be able to get a good reference letter if you do well organizing the events =)</p>

<p>You can mention attending charity walks and fundraisers, but they won't affect your chances very much. They will let the adcoms know that you do care about the community you live in and that you try to help others out, but as you all know, many of the applicants also participate in such runs/walks as well. So they won't help you standout. If I were you, I'd either not mention it (and save room for more important things), or I'd mention it very briefly.</p>